Ships at Twilight
by freifraufischer
Summary: Political ambitions and sexual attraction bring Tory Foster and Kendra Shaw together the morning before nuclear apocalypse destroys both their worlds. Later when they meet up again for the first time since the world ended, but their burdens have changed them into women each would not recognize. Kendra Shaw/Tory Foster
1. Chapter 1

Kendra Shaw didn't think of herself as homosexual no matter how many times she slept with women. Or how little interest she showed in the men her mother's friends seemed to think would make a good political marriage for her. Though she supposed not liking those men didn't count towards not liking men in general.

It had been a few months since her mother's death, but the shadow was still there. It probably always would be. All the right people showed up to her funeral. Even people who hated her mother made an appearance. Probably to make sure the old bitch was dead.

Not that she didn't love her mother, but Kendra knew what kind of politician her mother was. She even admired it, and emulated parts of that persona. But she didn't really have much of a desire to make her way into politics the way her mother had, climbing up the colonial political hierarchy over the bodies of her enemies. The Fleet was a much neater way to gain power. A much cleaner path. Even forty years after the Cylon War people in Colonial society still deferred to the military. Richard Adar was the first president in more than thirty years without any military service and it had cost him a lot during the campaign.

That and she looked good in uniform. At least that's what Tory said.

She glanced over at her lover, asleep beside her in bed, a sheet half covering her naked frame. They had met at her mother's funeral, Tory had gone with her boss, the mayor of Delphi. He was one of the ones who probably wanted to check her mother's pulse to make sure she was really dead. She and Tory had laughed about it that night in a bar.

Kendra didn't normally take women to bed that she'd just met. Especially when she'd met them at a funeral. Her mother's funeral. But there was something about the political operative that she rather liked, especially after a few drinks relaxed her.

She could still remember trailing her hand down the silk of Tory's shirt, slipping under to caress the young woman's breasts. She could still taste the slightly salty taste of Tory's nipples. It had been a beautiful night, which ended much too soon.

They had met a few more times, even tried to have dinner together while Kendra was on Caprica playing currier between Fleet HQ and the civilian government. But their relationship wasn't really founded on romance and the two of them beyond their political ambitions had very little in common. So they usually just ended up frakking, and that was really just fine with both of them.

A little sex was good for the soul.

Kendra looked over again at Tory and leaned her face into smell the mass of disheveled hair that cascaded down the pillow. There was something distant and flowery that she used in her hair that drove Kendra crazy.

The shifting in the bed woke her lover up, and she blinked a few times before focusing on Kendra. "Is it morning already?"

"0600."

"What is that in real person time?"

"The fleet is made up of real people you know. It's morning."

"When do you have to go?"

"I catch a shuttle up to the Scorpion Yards at 1200. We have plenty of time, though I should probably shower before I leave. Last thing I need to do is to report to Admiral Cain smelling of sex."

Tory smiled. "I like the smell."

"Do you now?" Kendra asked as she straddled Tory and brushed the last of the sheet from her body. She liked looking down on Tory, especially when she remembered that this woman thought she'd be president some day. She had even once joked that Kendra could be her Military Chief of Staff. Kendra rather liked the idea, mostly because she liked the idea of bending the president over her own desk and having her totally.

She leaned down and kissed Tory on the mouth, pushing her tongue past the other woman's, dominating the kiss in such a way that the other woman wouldn't have had a chance to return it. She wasn't all that interested in Tory returning anything right now. She just wanted to have one more frak before she was going to be stuck on a Battlestar for a few years.

When she finally left Tory's mouth the other woman was breathing rough and raggedly. Kendra moved down her neck, kissing and nipping a bit at the skin just where her neck met her shoulder. She intended to leave Tory with something to remember her by. She nipped at Tory's right nipple before capturing it between her teeth. The gasp from her lover told her she was biting just a bit beyond what was strictly comfortable. She pressed her teeth a bit farther and pulled up on the nipple.

A little pain was good for the soul. It told you that you were alive.

Without letting go of her nipple one of Kendra's free hands moved down along the curves of Tory's body until it reached her sex and she pressed a finger in to find her clit. She teased it, running her finger across it twice, pressing down a bit, but not lingering. One didn't leave an impression with just a lovely frak.

And Tory was going to remember her.

She moved her hand down, finally abandoning the pursuit of the nipple and watching her breast snap down again. She was going to need the leverage. She pressed two fingers into her, knowing how small and tight Tory was. Relishing how small and tight Tory was.

She pumped the two fingers in and how for a minute slowly, letting her feel them in her. She pumped just long enough so that Tory might think that this was how it was going to go, but as she sped up just a bit she pushed a third finger in and was rewarded with a long sustained grunt from Tory.

"Want me to stop?" It was a baiting question. She already knew that she'd stimulated Tory enough that there was no way she was going to want to stop now, no matter if it was a bit rougher than she had expected. She continued to pump her three fingers, driving the tension in Tory's body farther and faster. Just before climax she stopped and tilted her head at her lover, who looked suddenly alarmed.

"Do you want it?"

"Of course…" Tory pushed herself up just a bit to try and get Kendra's fingers just a bit deeper into her.

"Are you certain?"

The enthusiastic nodding of Tory's head made Kendra grin wider. She had wanted this since the day she had first met Tory. She wanted to have this self confident woman in her bed, under her, desperate for her. When she started pumping again she was moving her hand fast, like a piston. She watched Tory melt back into the pillows as the orgasm overtook her. As her body finally submitted to the inevitable.

Once the orgasm passed and Kendra had cleaned off her fingers she leaned down and kissed her on the mouth. "See you in a few years?"

Tory just nodded, unable to articulate much in the wake of the quick morning frak.

Kendra smiled and pulled herself out of bed to shower. Pegasus awaited.

Fin.


	2. Chapter 2

Tory hated going over to the Pegasus.

Not that she did it often, and almost never by herself. Galactica wasn't home, but it was rather like that gritty but really safe part of town where you knew that if someone tried to mug you everyone would come out into the street and beat the frak out of the offender. It was strange that she was starting to think of the fleet as a city, rather like Delphi, with each ship a distinct neighborhood. There were industrial ships and luxurious ships and conservative ships and ships where you could get just about anything you wanted.

Not everyone was happy to see someone from Colonial One come to visit their home, with our without the president, but Pegasus sent a shiver down Tory's spine. Like just about everyone she encountered looked down on her as if she was some lesser form of life. A civilian. Someone to either be dismissed or to be used.

She supposed that was Cain's legacy. Something made her rather doubt Lee Adama could do much about that.

She'd only been working for the president for a few weeks, and truthfully she wasn't all that sure what to make of the woman yet. She knew who Laura Roslin was before the end of the world, in political circles she was rather hard to miss, even with her junior cabinet post. Her last boss, the mayor of Delphi had a few run-ins with her, much to his regret, over standardized testing. Education reform was a key part of the Federalist platform and one of their major targets had been the Caprica Teachers Union. And really, no friend of Adar's was a friend of the mayor's.

Tory was on an inter-colonial shuttle when the world ended, and one of the ships they'd had to abandon relatively early after their escape from the colonies. As a consequence she'd ended up bouncing from scummy ship to scummy ship since. The captains of the Cloud 9 and Rising Star weren't all that interested in taking on too many refugees, and it wasn't like she had a lot of marketable skills in this new world. At least until recently.

She'd been working pay roll on the refining ship—through exactly what money was worth in their situation was rather debatable—when she'd gotten the call from Colonial One.

It's not that she wished Billy ill. She'd never met him, and from what she'd heard, he was a good man. There weren't many of those left. But in truth she wasn't sure if what they needed right now was good men. Good men weren't going to keep the human race going.

Still, it's not that she wished Billy ill, but the chance to be the president's personal aide/chief of staff/head cook and bottle washer was too good to turn down. Even if the president was Laura Roslin. Even if the world of the presidency had shrunk to a heavy transport and however far she could make her authority reach.

Which Tory supposed is why she hated going to Pegasus, and why she hated the look in the mighty Battlestar crew's eyes. These people weren't human anymore, and Tory wasn't sure yet if she felt pity or disgust for them because of it. She never had thought much about being human before the end of the world, but it seemed to her that was the one thing they couldn't afford to loose entirely.

It didn't surprise Tory that she was brooding about human frailties today. Human frailties were entirely why she was on Pegasus today. Hers were prologue, and hardly relevant, but they were going to color the conversation anyway.

She stopped at the door to a gym, the place was polished and clean, and didn't smell anything like sweet and age the way Galactica's did. Just was starting to think age was a lot of Galactica charm. She thought she might be finding a new appreciation for many things with a bit of age on them. The only occupant was a compact woman attacking a punching bag with a ferocity that in another life might have made Tory ask if the bag had kicked her dog or run over her cat.

But this wasn't a woman for light teasing now. Which was sad. The teasing had been the best part of their relationship. "Do you always ignore messages from the President's office, or did you not bother to see my name at the bottom?"

Her voice cut through the room enough that Major Kendra Shaw looked up surprised. In an instant of eye contact Tory saw the same thing she had herself felt when word had come through that Pegasus was the other Battlestar that had survived.

Kendra picked up a towel and wiped off her hands. "I didn't bother to read the message. Anything the president has to say to me can go through my CO. I didn't know it was you. Didn't think you would have survived. You were supposed to be in Delphi."

On the day the world ended, Tory mentally supplied. They'd frakked that morning, before Kendra had left. It seemed like a lifetime ago. It apparently was a lifetime ago.

"It was a last minute thing." Tory closed the door and walked farther into the room. "We need to falsify your medical records, to provide cover for a security operation."

"I don't read my medical file, I probably wouldn't have noticed if you went ahead and did it without telling me." Pegasus' new XO narrowed her eyes to focus on her. "Unless it's something I'd notice."

"I'm pretty sure you'd notice having a secret love child."

For a second or two Tory was sure Kendra hadn't heard her, and for another few after that she was sure that Kendra thought she hadn't heard her right. "Excuse me?"

"We need to provide a plausible background for a child, and you are a good candidate for someone who would want to hide it for political reasons."

"No one would believe I was pregnant, Tory." It was the first time she'd used her ex-lovers name, and something about it made Tory smile.

"No, but lucky there aren't many of us around who know enough about you to see the problem."

Kendra looked like she wanted to ask details, but she was a good enough soldier that Tory's earlier statement about security operations kept her form even voicing it. Finally the major just shrugged. "Whatever. Fine." Almost as if Tory wasn't there anymore she went back to punching the bag.

The political aide watched her for a moment. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it was just that she was trying to see even the smallest part of a woman she once liked and admired—though even with the cherry lens of hindsight Tory wouldn't have called it love. Maybe it was that she was trying to see what her friend had become. Or trying not to see it.

But in the end there was always truth. Say the things you know to be true.

"I know about the family. I'm going to have to tell the president about it."

Kendra's fist came to a gentle stop against the bag for a moment before she ripped at it with two or three nasty punches. "This isn't the right time in the operational cycle for political interference."

"You murdered civilians. Our civilians, Kendra."

Tory's voice carried a bit less outrage than she thought she should feel, but she'd examine that later.

"I was following orders."

"I don't think that's going to save your position. Not in the middle of an election."

"Do what you have to do Tory. Just don't come back here again. We both died that day. It's better that way."

Tory was stunned, but Kendra had gone back to her assault on the punching bag, as if she wasn't there. She debated trying to interrupt again, but instead just left. Closing the heavy bulkhead door behind her she just shook her head.

Fin.


End file.
